Small changes can significantly increase sales

I have very fond memories of a stay at the Ebisu Westin in Tokyo.  It was a brisk December night when I arrived from Narita airport.  The doorman greeted me with me with a polite bow and an open door.  The lobby was clean, inviting and well-decorated.  The bellman relieved me of my baggage while the front desk staff welcomed me with warmth and sincerity.   Everything was ready.  Just a quick signature and I was in my room with a terrific view of Tokyo’s citylights.  I felt like a king, gliding from the hotel taxi to the comfort on my room.  Quick, painless and professional.

That’s exactly how your company’s e-commerce site should be:  effortless, enjoyable, simple, and tasteful.

If you think about it, internet shoppers don’t have much patience.  They don’t want to see your fancy flash splash page, they don’t want to hear why you cannot ship to their destinations, and they don’t want to read paragraph after paragraph of mindless text.  Think lazy.  They don’t want to have to work hard for anything online.

Here’s what you need to know about e-commerce:

• Skip the fluff. Your home page must go straight to the sale.  Don’t waste time with flashy intros, sexy graphics, spooling videos, etc.  Start selling within the first micro second.  Disarm the shopper. Make them feel at-ease.  Take a look at Zappos.com (www.zappos.com):  Free shipping & Free 365 Day returns.  When I see that prominently displayed, I think, “Great!  I’m ready to shop!”

• Let them search. Internet shoppers are mission-oriented.  Chances are they didn’t just stumble across your site while browsing Congressional testimony online.  They are searching for something and thank goodness they are on your home page.  Make it easy for them to stay there.  Add a search function to your site and place it at the top above the fold so it’s easy to find and easy to use.  iStockphoto does it well: www.istockphoto.com

• Browsing is welcomed. Many ecommerce sites require shoppers to first register for an account before they can add items to their shopping carts.  That’s backwards.  There should be no barriers to shopping.  Let the shoppers shop.  Account registration can be done later at the point of purchase.  By letting the shoppers add items to their carts right away and by simplifying the account registration process, you will reduce cart abandonment and boost sales. See www.amazon.com as an example of how to do it right.

• Give them control. Online shoppers want to be the boss.  They want to control how many items are displayed on a page, they want easy access to the contents of their carts at any time, they want to be able to freely edit their carts while shopping, and they want quick answers to their questions. NetGrocer does a good job with a persistent cart on the right side of each page: www.netgrocer.com

• Breadcrumbs help. Breadcrumb navigation is a user interface term that comes from the Hasel and Gretel fairy tale. Online shoppers like to know here they are.  Use headlines, subheadings and breadcrumbs to make your site more useful.  Navigation must be easy and intuitive.  Remember, online shoppers want to buy.  Help them get what they want as quickly as possible.  Good example of breadcrumb navigation: www.newegg.com.

• Cross-sell. Your ecommerce site should be your best salesperson.  Always up, always ready, always asking for the sale.  No esteem issues, no sick days, no complaints.  Engineer your site to unobtrusively offer related items the shopper may be interested in purchasing.  I like the way all the big book sites do this.  Go to www.barnesandnoble.com, search on a book, and notice the section ‘Customers who bought this also bought…’  The Gap (www.gap.com) also does a good job by suggesting clothes and styles that may go well with what’s in your cart. Brilliant.

• Wish-lists are good. You want repeat business.  Maybe someone will buy something today, and come back later for more.  Or maybe the person shopping is not the one who will ultimately make the purchase. Wish-lists are especially relevant during gift giving seasons like Christmas and Valentine’s Day.  As you can imagine, Victoria’s Secret is big on wish-lists: www.victoriassecret.com

• Reminders are cool. If your product or service is event related, like a birthday or anniversary, you can leverage reminders to encourage your clients to send gifts.  And if you can integrate those reminders with addresses that account holders keep on file, then it’s very easy for repeat shoppers to buy from your site.  Look to American Greetings for inspiration: www.americangreetings.com

• Underscore security. Online shoppers can be distrustful – especially if you’re company’s name is not readily recognizable.  Wal-Mart, Sears, and Target have no problem here. They are globally recognized brands.  But for the rest of us, we have to give the online visitors confidence they are buying from a secure site and their personal information is safe.  Make sure your SSL certificate is updated so the lock icon appears on the secure pages.  And use trusted badges of security like Hacker Safe and Verisign to help mitigate shoppers’ fears.  To see what I mean, go to QVC’s site and scroll to the bottom:  www.iqvc.com

• Facilitate contact. One of the leading causes of cart abandonment is no one to contact.  You’ve probably been in that situation, where you’re shopping online and ready to submit your payment info but you have just one quick question…Make it easy for your customers to get answers to their questions every step of the way.  I like the way Lands End’s site is not bashful about their phone number and links to customer service: www.landsend.com.  They us chat technology very effectively, too.  See bottom left.

If you want to improve the performance of your ecommerce site, spend an hour or two poking around the sites of the brands you know well.  Be sure to examine the ones in your industry.  Note what works and what doesn’t.  Emulate the best practices.  Small changes to your ecommerce site can impact sales dramatically.